Background: Financial authority within the family is a multidimensional phenomenon shaped by the interplay of economic conditions, cultural norms, gender roles, and spousal relationships. Despite its importance, previous research has focused primarily on economic or gender-related factors, while the interactive processes through which financial authority is constructed and renegotiated—particularly within the cultural and economic context of Iranian families in the city of Qom—remain underexplored.

Objective: This study aimed to develop a contextually grounded explanation of the process through which financial authority and financial decision-making are formed and reconstructed in Iranian families.

Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in Qom, Iran, adopting a constructivist grounded theory approach. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 20 participants (8 men and 12 women). Purposive sampling was initially employed and subsequently guided by theoretical sampling until theoretical saturation was achieved. Data analysis was conducted concurrently with data collection using initial, focused, and theoretical coding, supported by the constant comparative method and theoretical memo writing.

Findings: The core category identified was the "interactive process of financial authority and decision-making within the family." This process is shaped by economic–gender identity, structural economic pressures, and early financial socialization, while being embedded within family gender norms, the family life cycle, and couples' patterns of economic participation. Couples continuously renegotiate the boundaries of financial authority through negotiation, joint decision-making, resource management, and the regulation of consumption practices. These interactions generate consequences across multiple dimensions, including marital relationships, perceived financial justice, economic identity, and overall family well-being.

Conclusion: Financial authority in Iranian families is a dynamic, interactive, and context-dependent process that emerges from the interplay of economic, cultural, and relational factors rather than being reducible to economic resources or gender roles alone. The contextually grounded model developed in this study explicates the interrelationships among causal conditions, contextual conditions, intervening conditions, interactional strategies, and multilevel consequences, offering a comprehensive conceptual framework for advancing the literature on financial authority within families. The model also provides a theoretically informed foundation for designing educational, counseling, and policy interventions that are responsive to the cultural and economic context of Iranian society.